Featured Blog Posts – December 2011 Archive (22)

1) Thou shalt invest more heavily in online marketing than traditional media (print, radio and TV).

This is like renting vs buying your building. What will you have to show for your investment long term? What happens after a radio ad or a newspaper ad runs? What…

In our original blog titled “Google Analytics: Analyzing Mobile Website Performance”, we reviewed a number of reporting metrics provided by Google and possible interpretations of the data. In addition, we discussed best practices for setting up a Google Analytics account for your main and mobile websites. In this most recent blog, we will take a look back at mobile website…

Marie Miller-Rodriguez's day starts at 6 a.m. and stays fast-paced all day.  As the social Media Specialist for Phoenix-area's The Melting Pot restaurants, her day is the same every day, but different, too. 

With its headquarters in Florida and three restaurants in the Phoenix area, Miller-Rodriguez’s day is packed. “You have to go where the technology is - go…

Everyone has a system of values that they live by — and in business, those values come into play just as they do in everyday life. Constant decisions define each individual, as well as how a company is seen by the world. Principles, ideals and ethics guide and shape priorities and reactions.

For me, the values I choose to run my business by also serve as markers that show the progress we achieve. They are beacons guiding us in the right direction, leading us to provide the type of…

On route to Kauai last week I spent the majority of my flight reading the best selling novel "E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber. The way the book was presented was unique & captivating and sprouted some very interesting thoughts about franchising from an independent operators point of view. I am not an operator, anymore, but I do work as an advisor for many of them now and I feel like Mr. Gerber…

It's good to keep track of what is created over time with hard work, passion and dedication. We at FohBoh have always advocated for the restaurant industry, working hard to deliver on our promise and this will only continue as we move in to 2012.

The FohBoh Milestone Timeline: 2007-2011…

Luckily, it’s a busy time of the year for many restaurants.  Trying to keep up with increased demand may have created an operational squeeze on your time.  Now here you are--in the midst of the holidays-- to find that you didn’t get to all of the marketing tasks you intended.  It is a little late in the game but there is still time for a few efforts that are pretty easy to tackle and inexpensive as well.

Gift Cards

Stay in the mind of your customers and shoppers…

You are so much fun to be around.  You know how to host and how to serve; how to cook and how to present. Everyone hits you up for recipes and tips from table settings to the length of oven time their holiday roast requires for perfect medium rare.

What non-hospitality folks don’t understand is how hard it is to work around food all day long!

We asked hospitality professionals around the country what habits to make or break in order to stay healthy and we received a ton of…

Does Size Really Matter?

Ahh…the age old question. But I’m talking about the size of your restaurant’s email list. (Yeah, I know.  False advertising, right? You totally expected a different angle didn’t you?)

Everywhere you turn you are being told to gather all the emails of your guests, and keep building your database, and every event you do should have a way of gathering email…

When at the bars, it is not uncommon to see multiple kinds of glasses sitting behind the bar. It seems to me that most of those glasses aren’t used very often, but then again, I have a habit of ordering the same drink every time. If you are confused or curious like me, here is an explanation of what each glass is used for.

    

The first and most commonly used cocktail glasses are the highball and lowball. The lowball is generally used for “single” shot mixed drinks or for…

Fresh baked bread, imported meats, house-made spreads...what’s not to love about an artisan sandwich?  Well, the calorie count may be an issue to some people.  With New Years and Resolutions just around the corner it’s not a bad idea to start thinking about ways to cut calories for those diners on a weight loss mission.  Sandwiches provide an easy platform to make simple changes that will lower their fat and calorie contents.  Here are some ideas to help get started:

Wrap…

Friends, Humans, Social Media folks…Lend me your ears…For let me tell thee about the true payoff of this thing we call Social Media!

Last week myself and others started a ball rolling on Twitter to aid a small but powerful radio station in Campbell River Canada where…

Now that you’ve created your restaurant’s mobile website it’s time to think about tracking results. This will help you analyze the effectiveness of your content and ultimately help you optimize your sales. The beauty of Google Analytics is that it’s free and you don’t have to be an analyst to interpret the data, or act on it.

 Key Metrics in Google Analytics

Here is a breakdown of a number of key metrics provided by Google Analytics, possible interpretations of the data,…

No, I’ve never read anything by Erica Jong, and there’s nothing zipless about this column -- nor, I trust, about the attitudes of the parties who inspired it.  (For those of less than a certain age, feel free to research Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying and the cultural touchstone it provided.)…

File this under the category of: ‘Things to do on your off-day or after closing up the bar.’

Those of us who enjoy a cocktail (or five) now and again know that music usually makes it way into the experience at some point. Whether it’s listening to the jukebox or picking an…

Opening a restaurant or bar is a risky endeavor even under the most ideal of circumstances. So when the economy is in a downturn it would seem like the worst possible time to take the plunge into the uncertain world small business.

Not so fast, says Tony Marchese.…

It’s no secret that the holiday season can be disastrous for diets. So many tradition holiday snacks and beverages pack a calorie punch that makes stepping on the scale come January a dreaded act. While some indulgence is unavoidable, a usable knowledge of the calorie counts for classic holiday snacks and drinks can help one avoid the perennial holiday bulge. Which seasonal favorites stand out as particularly detrimental?  Peter Vash, M.D., medical director of Lindora Clinic, providers of…